Teachers are AI-curious, but worried about screens
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Teachers are struggling to embrace useful and increasingly unavoidable technology while keeping students focused, per a new global survey from a Columbus-based education company.
Why it matters: Many Central Ohio students are back to school this week for the first school year in which all Ohio K-12 public districts must have policies in place related to AI in the classroom.
Driving the news: McGraw Hill, which has one of its headquarters in Columbus, surveyed over 1,300 educators across 19 countries this spring for its annual Global Education Insights Report.
- Three key takeaways from its findings:
Cautious AI optimism: Most teachers have started using AI themselves to save time — and know students are using it, but want it to be integrated into learning.
- 60% of educators believe their students use AI for schoolwork, including 70% in U.S. higher education.
- Educators are vastly more likely to trust information students receive from AI if it's embedded into education platforms versus general AI chatbots.
- Around 80% are comfortable with students using AI to create study guides and for translation.
Screen time worries: Educators believe students' ability to focus has declined in the last five years, particularly in grades K-12.
- Screen time is widely seen as the biggest obstacle to student success.
Declining mental health: More than two-thirds are concerned about students' mental well-being.
- That includes a whopping 86% of K-12 educators.
- For the second year in a row, managing student behavior and mental health was the No. 1 challenge (42%) teachers say they face.
The bottom line: "The future of education will be defined by how responsibly and effectively we use technology to support teaching, deepen learning and build the skills students need next," McGraw Hill president and CEO Philip Moyer said in a news release.
- "The impact of social media and screen time is clear. In the AI era, we have a responsibility to build tools that strengthen — not diminish — the teacher-student relationships, critical thinking and human connection at the heart of learning."